The Government Class Book eBook

Sec.9. The first Wednesday of January, 1789,
was appointed by congress for choosing electors of
president in the several states, and the first Wednesday
of February for the electors to meet in their respective
states to elect the president. Gen. Washington
was unanimously elected, and on the 30th of April
was inaugurated president. Proceedings under
the constitution, however, had commenced on the 4th
of March preceding.

Chapter XLVI.

Amendments to the Constitution.

Sec.1. It is remarkable that, during a period
of seventy years, the constitution has received so
few alterations. Although twelve articles of
amendment, so called, have been adopted, only two,
(the 11th and 12th,) have in any manner or degree
changed any of its original provisions. Most
of them, it will be seen, are merely declaratory and
restrictive. As the principles which they declare
were so generally acknowledged, and as the general
government was a government of limited powers, having
such only as were expressly authorized by the constitution,
the framers deemed these declarations and restrictions
unnecessary. But as several of the state conventions
had, at the time of adopting the constitution, expressed
a desire that declarations and guaranties of certain
rights should be added, in order to prevent misconstruction
and abuse, the first congress, at its first session,
proposed twelve amendments, ten of which were ratified
by the requisite number of states. Virginia,
the last state necessary to make up such number, ratified
December 15, 1791.

Sec.2. Freedom in matters of religion, freedom
of speech and of the press, and the right to petition
the government for the redress of grievances, guarantied
in the first article, are rights so essential to civil
liberty, and so evidently just, that it can hardly
be presumed that congress would ever have passed laws
directly violating these rights, even though such
laws had not been prohibited.

Sec.3. The second article guaranties “the
right of people to bear arms.” Without
this right, ambitious men might, by the aid of the
regular army, overthrow the liberties of the people,
and usurp the powers of government.

Sec.4. The third article declares, that “no
soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any
house without the consent of the owner, nor in time
of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”
It is a principle of the common law, that “a
man’s house is his own castle.” Among
the grievances enumerated in the Declaration of Independence,
was one “for quartering large bodies of armed
troops” among the people of the colonies.
To secure the people against intrusions of this kind,
is the object of this prohibition.